Tensor glyph

In scientific visualization a tensor glyph is an object that can visualize all or most of the nine degrees of freedom, such as acceleration, twist, or shear – of a ${\displaystyle 3\times 3}$ matrix. It is used for tensor field visualization, where a data-matrix is available at every point in the grid. "Glyphs, or icons, depict multiple data values by mapping them onto the shape, size, orientation, and surface appearance of a base geometric primitive."^[1] Tensor glyphs are a particular case of multivariate data glyphs.

There are certain types of glyphs that are commonly used:

• Ellipsoid
• Cuboid
• Cylindrical
• Superquadrics

According to Thomas Schultz and Gordon Kindlmann, specific types of tensor fields "play a central role in scientific and biomedical studies as well as in image analysis and feature-extraction methods."^[2]

References

1. Kindlmann, Gordon (2004). "Superquadric Tensor Glyphs" (PDF). Joint EUROGRAPHICS – IEEE TCVG Symposium on Visualization (2004). Retrieved September 1, 2012.
2. Schultz, Thomas and Gordon L. Kindlmann (November–December 2010). "Superquadric Glyphs for Symmetric Second-Order Tensors" (PDF). IEEE Transactions on Visualization and Computer Graphics. 16 (6): 1595–604. CiteSeerX 10.1.1.461.3948. doi:10.1109/TVCG.2010.199. PMID 20975202. S2CID 10026004.

Further reading

• Superquadric Tensor Glyphs (Images and Examples)
• Bertin, Jacques (2010) [1967]. Semiology of Graphics. ISBN 978-1589482616.